Credit Card Payoff Calculator
Enter your balance, APR and monthly payment to see exactly when you’ll be debt-free — and how much interest a slightly bigger payment saves you.
Your payoff plan
- Total paid over the plan—
- Total interest paid—
- Interest saved vs minimum-only—
- Payoff date (approx.)—
What this means
Related guides
How long does it really take to pay off a credit card?
Credit card interest compounds monthly, which means a high APR debt grows even as you pay. With only minimum payments, a $6,000 balance at 22% APR can take 20+ years and cost more than the original balance in interest.
The math
Monthly interest = Balance × (APR ÷ 12)
New balance = Balance + interest − total payment
Each month: interest is charged on the previous balance, your payment is applied, and the cycle repeats until the balance reaches zero. This calculator runs that simulation month by month — no closed-form approximation.
Worked example
$6,000 balance, 22% APR, $120 minimum + $100 extra = $220/month (month-by-month simulation):
- Month 1 interest = $6,000 × (0.22/12) = $110; balance = $6,000 + $110 − $220 = $5,890
- Month 2 interest ≈ $107.98; balance ≈ $5,778
- With only $120/month: payoff takes 137 months (11.4 years), ~$10,414 in interest
- With $220/month: payoff takes 39 months (3.3 years), ~$2,394 in interest — saving ~$8,020